Could a re-elected Bush force Canada to support an expanded war

[Swede]

in the middle-east?

[qwertyMike]

1. NOT THIS CANADIAN

We are already planning the Resistance Movement here.

[theivoryqueen]

3. If Bush gets re-elected

I want to be a Canadian, too. I've always liked the pacific northwest!

[mainegreen]

2. I doubt it

Canada seems to be drifting further away from us politically, if not economically. Their treatment of Native Americans, Medical Marujuana, Health Care, Immigrants, Gay Marriage and just about anything else leaves the Bush administration completely incompatible with those wild and crazy Canadians.

[newyawker99]

8. Hi maingreen!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[wryter2000]

4. Hi Swede

:hi: He wasn't elected the first time.

[Spazito]

5. In a word, NO!

Canada was, is and always will be a PEACEKEEPING nation. We are very supportive of the UN and not of the warmongering Bush administration.

[Swede]

6. What I mean is if he says your with us or against us and mean it.

Especially if there was a big terrorist strike in the US.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. It's something I've thought a lot about,

and I think the answer is yes.

I believe it would take a single terrorist event on Canadian soil to turn majority opinion, at least in the short term, towards giving Bush the benefit of the doubt. It won't need to be on the order of 9/11 or even Bali. A nightclub bombing will be enough.

And our soon-to-be Prime Minister, Paul Martin, will likely be much closer to Bush than Chretien was, less inclined to cause offense, and more amenable to signing on to the White House's projects.

[JohnyCanuck]

9. Face it the US has Canada by the short and curlies

Because of trade ties and the differences in size between the two markets (Canada's population is roughly 10% of the US) if Canadian businesses were shut off from the US market we would be in a whole world of hurt. In a trade war the US would also hurt, but not to the same extent. While the US does need our oil and natural gas, if Canada ever threatened the US economy by shutting down energy exports to the US, I have no doubt the Canadian government would be overthrown either by overt or covert means.

If a Bush administration really decided to pull its weight to get the Canadian's onside in some military adventure, I would not be surprised if the Canadian politicians folded like a cheap lawn chair.
Of course if a revitalised conservative party ever came into power after the amalgamation of the wingnut Alliance Party and the Progressive Conservatives (as currently being discussed), it could be a moot point, especially if the more winger Alliance party emerges as the dominant power in the amalgamated conservative party. The current Alliance leader (and leader of the opposition), Stephen Harper, would love nothing more than to assure the Shrub of Canada's loyalty by afixing his lips to Shrub's posterior on behalf of all of Canada.


Since the Canadian military is small and not that well equipped for major military campaigns and therefore not really capable of offering much support in military terms, the main advantage of having Canada onside in a war is in the PR it could bring in the court of world opinion. I figure the Bush gang will probably just let things slide and don't slide as long as we keep shipping oil and natural gas south and don't cause too many waves by offering moral support to anti-Bush forces.

[DuctapeFatwa]

10. Not if Canada will get off its butt and PLEASE make US a colony!

What the hell are all those Mounties doing trotting around the tundra when they could be launching a suprise cavalry charge into Michigan?

I want to see the whole PNAC bunch locked into a room and blasted with Alanis Morrissette at mega-volume while they wait for their Royal Canadian Non-Stop Hague flight!

I want to look out my window and see Inuit Special Forces in Snowmobiles with loudspeakers telling me I am liberated!

[roguevalley]

11. I don't see terrorists wasting time and energy

and people and possibilities on a basically neutral country.
I can't imagine people turning to George if their country was
attacked. He would probably be pilloried as the person
responsible for making it possible for this to happen to Canada.

I doubt that Canada would give its sovereignity over to a
chimp.

Besides, Canada is fiercely independent of the idea of being
America light.

RV, in Alaska, an American state often confused as a Canadian
province. <Not altogether a bad thought> :)